Paige VanZant ties for first with ‘Toy Story’ rendition on ‘Dancing With The Stars’

From a cage to Disney, Paige VanZant made the transition look seamless.

The UFC strawweight contender and partner Mark Ballas stole the show Monday night with a rendition of “Toy Story” on “Dancing With The Stars.” The whimsical dance earned them scores of 9 across the board for a total of 36 out of 40. That number was good enough to tie for them for first this week with Ginger Zee and Val Chmerkovskiy.

In their previous dance last week, VanZant and Ballas mimicked an MMA fight complete with a makeshift Octagon. VanZant won via faux knockout. On Monday, though, was a much more fun, light-hearted dance with the two of them dressed up like “Toy Story” characters Jessie and Woody as part of “Disney Week” on “DWTS.”

Zendaya, the popular singer and actress, was a guest judge this week and raved about VanZant and Ballas’ performance, praising VanZant’s “clean feet.”

“I felt like I was 9 years old again watching it,” Zendaya said. “It was so fun.”

At the end of the episode, VanZant was ruled safe from being eliminated, which came as no surprise considering her success on the show thus far. The Team Alpha Male product has to be viewed as one of the favorites to win the whole thing.

VanZant, 22, is one of the most popular fighters in the UFC’s strawweight champion and a former dancer, model and actress. Her pop culture crossover appeal has been more than demonstrated on this season of “Dancing With The Stars.”

And it seems like she’s having a great time doing it, too. VanZant said in the interview/rehearsal portion of the show that for the first time she is developing friends outside the fight world.